During his short stint, Steve Bannon apparently had Wolff at the White House, blabbing away on everything and anything concerning his employer.

Debunked,
The NY Mag article preceding the book’s release has Bannon explaining that “Trump didn’t want to win,” for starters. Trump was spending his own money and flying his own plane to six rallies daily, but, that aside, I’d be curious to know how that jives with the Russia collusion story. Either you are “treasonous and unpatriotic” (in Bannon’s words), plotting with Russia-Russia-Russia to throw the election in your favor, or you don’t want to win: you can’t have both.

Conservatives who know Bannon have turned on him, and they are not kind. Ben Shapiro considers him a bad person who should not be at Breitbart,

Bannon is far more of a liability than an asset: he doesn’t have the ear of the Breitbart-investing Mercers, he doesn’t have the ear of the White House, and he doesn’t have the ear of the base.

Andrew Klavan states in his podcast that “The press goes crazy over Michael Wolff’s new book “Fire and Fury,” but what we’ve seen so far is absurd crap.” Klavan started yesterday’s podcast with “the meeting [Bannon] didn’t attend during campaigns he hadn’t joined” and lets it rip,

I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!

Like this:

I haven’t been the biggest fan of Steve Bannon’s since I started seeing his true colors a couple of years ago. It’s not his ideology; I agree with him more often than not, though his alt-right leanings have been a concern. I didn’t care for the way he goes about getting his agenda done. It’s as important for him to win his way as it is for him to win at all. One needs at least a little narcissism to be successful in politics, but Bannon tends to take it to the extreme. It’s been his greatest strength, yet ultimately it will be the thing that will take him down.

Has that already happened? Has he been “taken down” by recent revelations that he threw out insults about the President’s son and accusations at the President himself?

If anyone else close to President Trump said the things that Bannon, said, there would be no way for them to bounce back. With Bannon, it’s too early to tell if he’s done. Just as he did during the campaign and attempted to do in the early days of the administration, Bannon masterfully uses bad news to act as a springboard from which to bounce back up higher than he was before. This is why he has so much affection for leaks to the media. He used them during the campaign to distract the press from other issues. For example, every time buzz ramped up about candidate Trump needing to release his tax returns, some other more interesting controversy sprung up. Attacks on Ted Cruz’s father, releasing the “John Barron” tapes, and leaking lewd photos of Melania Trump all happened when cries were at their loudest for Trump to release his tax returns. As a result of all three moves, the tax question faded from discussion.

He attempted to do the same thing while with the administration, but with little apparent success. This is almost certainly why he was fired. White House leaks slowed down dramatically after he left.

I’m not suggesting he intended the quotes in Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury, to create the stir that it has caused. When he made the remarks, he was in a much better position to weather the repercussions, so he let his ego take his mouth too far. Nevertheless, he DID intend for his words to go public and demonstrate his boldness. Now, he has to backtrack. Here’s why:

His agenda through Trump… for now

Steve Bannon wants to be something bigger than he is. Whether that means President of the United States or a force behind the scenes is unknown, but his ambition is not to lead Breitbart. He wants to be the king, the kingmaker, and/or the king’s puppet-master.

For now, the path to achieve his goals is to support President Trump. Despite the President declaring yesterday that Bannon had “lost his mind,” don’t expect his former chief strategist to hit back in any way against the President. Bannon’s plan has always been to isolate the President from everyone else, even those in his family. He feels (or at least felt at one point) he can put a wedge between the President and those closest to him by playing to Trump’s ego. It’s worked from time to time, but Bannon underestimated the President’s attachment to other advisers, particularly those in his family.

What’s the point of it all? Does he just love and admire the President so much he wants him all to himself? No. The President has been and always will be nothing but a tool for Bannon. He has an agenda he wants pushed forward and the best person to open the doors the widest for Bannon to ram his agenda through is Donald Trump.

Getting him into the White House wasn’t the end game. It was the first major move.

Getting evicted from the White House didn’t derail Bannon. It made him change his strategy, but that strategy still includes President Trump. If the rift that was created by the book continues much longer, we may see Bannon referencing Trump’s agenda rather than the President himself, but for now he’s going to continue supporting the President and the President alone. He will paint him as a man who shares Bannon’s vision. Over time, he will claim more and more ownership of that agenda until a triggering event happens.

What’s the trigger?

At some point in the near future, President Trump will do something that allegedly goes against the “Make America Great Again” agenda. I suspected it would be signing DACA amnesty into law, but blowback from his quotes in the book may force Bannon to delay until the next anti-agenda move the President makes.

Bannon’s plan comes in three stages. First, he has to support the President which he is doing now. Then, he has to support the agenda and start distancing himself from the President, claiming the President’s advisers are pushing him in the wrong direction. The last stage will be a complete reversal and all out war. He will say he made a mistake with President Trump, that he wasn’t the man he thought he was, and that the agenda needs a new leader. He will be that leader.

Will it work?

Had the Roy Moore allegations never come out, I would say that Bannon’s plan was likely to work. He had a narrative built perfectly around the notion that he was the true champion for making America great again. This is why he said what he did for Wolff’s book. At the time of the interview, he was looking to be in much better position than he is now.

Does that mean he’s done? No, but he has a lot more maneuvering to do before he can truly start claiming the power he believes he deserves.

Steve Bannon will either go down in history as a master strategist who pulled a series of trick plays that won him the game, or he won’t go down in history at all. His trajectory is currently pointed towards the latter, but it’s still going to be important to watch him. Whether he rises or falls, he’s going to take a lot of people with him.

Last night I covered Steve Bannon’s speech at the 603 Alliance fundraiser in Manchester NH.

Because I got home a little late my post on the subject, including video of speeches by Bannon and Corey Lewindowski and some interviews (including an exclusive with Corey) will go up tomorrow but there was one thing that was newsworthy enough that I thought it worth getting up now.

It appears blogging minds think alike because in the middle of his speech Steve addressed the very same thing and gave it some needed perspective. I’ve excerpted that part of the speech here (I apologize for the brief video blur in the middle as the camera readjusted focus)

My gut feeling is the same as Steve’s and based on Moore’s response on twitter he plans on taking a page from the Trump book, ignoring the national MSM pile on and just keep fighting, particularly against a media that is highly trusted by the voters in Alabama.

While I can’t speak for the establishment GOP there is one thing that seems pretty clear, the days of non-establishment GOP members wilting or backing down from the MSM without a fight appear to be over. Or to paraphrase myself. they’re not going to let themselves be played.

That is a seminal change, which is why I believe the MSM/Establishment will now go all out in Alabama, because if Moore ignores the attack, fights back and wins the example that will set for other candidates and the damage to the media as the left’s attack dogs will be incalculable.

(Reminder Steve’s full speech short 25 seconds when camera #1’s battery died and I went to camera 2 will be up tomorrow)

Update I’ll be including this in my post on the event as well but here is an exclusive interview with him after the Bannon speech where he touches on the subject as well

He’s putting the reason why we shouldn’t trust these guys rather diplomatically don’t you think?

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There’s been a target on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s back ever since he assumed the role from his predecessor, John Boehner. That target wasn’t painted there by Democrats or leftist media, though they haven’t exactly been supportive. The target was painted on his back by Breitbart and other alt-right “conservative” media sites who view Ryan and all of his cohorts as “RINOs” that need to be abolished.

I have no affection for Ryan. He’s more moderate on most issues than I would like, but that’s to be expected. What’s worse is that he’s been ineffective as Speaker, unable to push through significant legislation since President Trump took office.

Should Ryan fear Steve Bannon who has pledged to attack the “Establishment” with primary battles and bad press? Yes, though it’s unlikely that he would lose a primary as a result of Bannon’s attacks. The real thing Ryan and every Republican should fear is that damage Bannon and Breitbart can do in the general election. Will they pave the way to Democrat majorities in both the House and Senate?

Sadly, the answer is probably, “yes.” It’s not as if Congressional Republicans have done enough to be worthy of keeping a majority even without attacks from Bannon. They’ve been impotent at best and counterproductive at worst. They’ve forced the President to resort to executive orders to attack Obamacare and force immigration reform onto Congress. Bannon’s attacks will only make them more vulnerable. Even if they’re able to defeat the primary opponents he puts up (and most if not all of them will with the exception of Jeff Flake), they’ll still be weakened both financially and with the Trump base going into the general elections.

In other words, they’re going to lose seats if they can’t figure out a way to pass real legislation soon. Tax reform will go a long way towards helping them, but they need to pass some sort of Obamacare repeal before election day in 2018 if they realistically hope to hold the House and Senate.

For Ryan’s part, he’s playing it cool. Is it a show? Is it ignorance? Does he know something we don’t? While he probably wouldn’t lose a primary nor the general election directly, he may end up losing his seat as Speaker of the House if the GOP can’t figure out how to keep their majority.

Like this:

Today, broadcast television was interrupted with breathless “Breaking News” that Steve Bannon had been fired from the Trump administration. You would think that nothing else was happening in the world today or that nobody at home wanted to actually watch the end of their shows which had been preempted for this news and the endless public pontificating and bloviating over what it all means. Talking heads had been predicting this event and/or wishing for it for a long time, having long smeared Bannon as a raaaaacist (FYI, they have done and will continue to do this to pretty much anyone and everyone who works for President Trump, or defends him, or fails to denounce him sufficiently to their leftist liking).

The left and their #NeverTrump enablers are delighted and spewing their gloat at any public platform they can find. They think they have a major victory that will further their insidious goal of bringing down President Donald J. Trump. They are as wrong as they are obnoxious, and they are plenty obnoxious!

Bannon fired at long, long last
Team Pepe cries a river
The hobo shitlord leaves his job
To spend more time with his liver

In the final analysis, Steve Bannon was staff, always staff; simply staff.

Political Strategist Bannon did not create any of President Trump’s policies or platform issues. The political policy from President Trump is directly from President Trump.

Here is a little experiment you can try: Go to the local grocery store or gas station and ask someone on line with you what they think of Steve Bannon getting fired, ask again at the waiting room in your doctor’s office or at the mechanic or hairdresser or wherever you go in your every day life where Americans are going about their lives away from the hair-on-fire histrionics of cable news and new media. Odds are the answer you get will be along the lines of, “Steve who?” – even among people who voted for Donald Trump.

And that is the point, people: we did not vote for Steve Bannon, or Sean Spicer or that Scaramucci fella – or anybody else who President Trump has fired or will fire in the future for that matter – we voted for Donald J. Trump and as long as he is still our President and as long as he is still doing everything he can to MAGA despite the opposition he gets from all sides, it is all gravy. We don’t care. Covfefe on that for a while.

UPDATE: Mt.Bannon has landed on his feet, back at Breitbart, and he remains loyal to President Trump.

*******

MJ Stevenson, AKA Zilla, is best known on the web as Zilla at MareZilla.com. She lives in a woodland shack near a creek, in one of those rural parts of New York State that nobody knows or cares about, with her family and a large pack of guardian companion animals.